The Last Year
by HowltheGreat
Summary: A simply realistic love story set in the 'Real World', Naruto and the rest of his class are in their Senior Year of high school when Sasuke transfers into the school mysteriously after being gone for three years. While everyone has changed and matured, Sasuke's personality is surprisingly humble and quiet compared to what he use to be. Coming of age, romance, mild angst.
1. Chapter 1

The first day of school is always filled with mixed emotions. Some students are excited about the new year, with new prospects for both love and heartache. Some are just grateful that they are one step closer to being done with the daily grind of books and teachers. Either way, the students of the Hidden Leaf High School were busy chatting in their seats and uniforms, still excited from the summer break. It was the last year for this class with their ages spanning between 16 and 18 years old. Some had turned into legal adults over the break while others had birthdays later in the year. Naruto Uzumaki, who was going to turn 18 in October, was one of those students. He was also busy staring outside from his window seat, not really paying attention to the chatter. It was obvious that his nearly adult mind was elsewhere.

"Ne, Ne! Naruto!" Snapping out of it, Naruto finally noticed that his childhood friend, and ongoing crush, was extremely close to his face with her pink hair and lips painfully teasing him. This sudden togetherness forced a flustered blush from his scarred cheeks.

"Ne, yourself, Sakura...What do you want?" Giggling, she only gave a shrug before turning her back as she took in her own desk two rows over from him. She made sure to smooth out her pleated skirt before sitting down then rested her attractive round face on one of the palm of her girly manicured hands. Naruto could only blink as he watched, running his own hand through the cropped cut blonde hair that was on top of his head. Turning from the seat in front of him, Shikimaru gave a smirking grin.

"Rumor has it that she's ready to ask you out this year, Naruto. Get ready to be confessed too." Again, Naruto blinked just before waving his other friend off.

"I confessed like five times already. She always said no because she liked Sasuke."

"Well, Sasuke transferred like three years ago when his yakuza brother came and got him. Women are fickle."

"Don't compare Sakura to Hinata, Shiki..."

"Hey, we've been dating for two years now. Take my advice on some things."

Sighing, Naruto then moved back to look out the window again, but his blue eyes did wander to look over at Sakura after only a few seconds. Indeed, she was looking at him. She was even smiling and waving. It was...very odd. "If I can get your attention class?" The homeroom teacher, Mr. Iruka, tapped a ruler on his desk to quiet down the noise. "We have a new student, in a manner of speaking." Eyes focusing, the class instantly recognized the 'new' student. With spiked black hair and overgrown bangs, Sasuke Uchiha took a deep bow.

"Good morning..."

"Sasuke, you can have a seat in the back for now. You remember Naruto, right?"

"Huh?" Naruto turned, wondering why the seat next to him was empty. He suddenly remembered that Neji had graduated early from taking summer courses. Sasuke nodded, finding himself in the middle between Sakura and Naruto. The dark eyes looked straight ahead before moving to look as he fiddled with his set of books and new sitting area. Naruto constantly stared only to stiffen up when Sasuke actually looked back. Unexpectedly, he gave a polite smile and a soft bow of acknowledgement. Naruto instantly nodded back, his gaze softening.

"Alright class, let's get your Japanese History books open. Choji, would you please read from chapter 9?"

And just like that, life went on as usual. The day of the class moved forward just like every other day. During the lunch break, the girls moved to gossip in the corner as Sasuke left to eat his boxed lunch outside in a secluded area. "Hey, hey, Naruto?" One of the girls called to him though he couldn't tell who it was from the flock of women. "Can you believe that Sasuke would show his face again?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You know! His brother is in the Yakuza!" Another anonymous female voice spoke up. "He left Sasuke in the orphanage just like you when his parents were killed in that gang thing! Then he came back and took Sasuke to be in the gang with him!"

"What? That's crazy...Sasuke would never..."

"I bet he has a tattoo now! Tattoos are so cool", the third voice chimed in.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto left the chattering to the females and headed out of the room. He never ate lunch outside, but suddenly had the urge to do it today. It had been three years since Sasuke left him, despite Naruto begging for him to stay. They even got into a fight about it. Naruto was also an orphan, his parents dead from a car accident soon after he was born. Being put in the orphanage, he was only around six when he met Sasuke. Apparently, his parents were in the Yakuza and got killed in a territory dispute that was all over the news. His elder brother had to leave for the business and Sasuke was just left clueless. Being in the orphanage since he was practically born, Naruto took Sasuke under. Despite their constant bickering, they really were best friends. When Sasuke's brother, Itachi, finally came back, Naruto didn't want him to leave.

But what could he do? That was Sasuke's real family, not him. They left on bitter terms, though Naruto did try to write but Sasuke never wrote back. With all these old memories, Naruto found himself around the corner, facing an old wooden bench from the school's abandoned track yard. It wasn't in use anymore. There were only bits of overgrown equipment leftover from what wasn't taken up from the building's expansion. Sitting on the ledge of the bench was Sasuke, holding his bento and chopsticks with a piece of tomato being slowly chewed on. "You...still like tomatoes, huh?"

Sitting down next to him, Naruto opened his own boxed lunch. Inside was a small salad, which he used his own chopsticks to transfer his slices of the red fruit to Sasuke's box. "I don't eat mine, but since you left, I had no one to give them to, so it's good that you came back." Suddenly, the distance that was between them closed as if it was never there in the first place. Picking one up, Sasuke popped it into his mouth.

"It's good. You're missing out."

"Well, give one back then."

"No, you gave them to me."

"Come on, Sasuke. Don't be selfish!"

Pulling the box back, Sasuke continued to eat them off and dodge Naruto's failed retrieval attempts.

"All gone."


	2. Chapter 2

"Aw...fine..." The silence of eating lunch was comforting. While there might have been a lot to talk about and catch up on, the silence acted as if the last three years had always been like this. Once he was done eating, Naruto closed his lunch box up and stood with a stretch. Looking down, the blonde noticed that Sasuke was staring. It was embarrassing; despite an unspoken denial that Sasuke hadn't really been around to see each other grow up from awkward teenagers to borderline adults. Naruto could take a guess at what Sasuke was thinking after the dark eyes turned away leaving Naruto a chance to look himself over. He was taller than he used to be having easily grown an additional four to six inches since they had last seen one another. Sasuke was taller as well, but had lost the height contest in the end. Naruto proudly stood all of an inch and a half higher.

After dusting off his backside from the dirt that had caked onto the old bench, Naruto then looked to Sasuke again. He motioned with a pointed thumb while speaking with a bit of a grin. "Hey, there is a vending machine behind the gym. You wanna get a drink?" After giving a silent nod, Sasuke finally closed his box as well to cover his leftovers. After standing, he gave a quick dust off to his own backside just as Naruto had, looking to his hand afterwards only to become a little annoyed at the dirt. "Hold still, you got something on ya."

Taking Sasuke's arm, the blonde swatted at Sasuke's rear end a good few times. The dust came off, but when he was done, Naruto only then noticed that he was being stared at by other students. Not only was he with the Yazuka-breed Sasuke, but he was also publically spanking the other male. Flushing red, Naruto tried to explain that it wasn't anything perverted. "No, that...I was just...He had dirt...Aw, man..."The giggling young first-years looked to each other before walking off while whispering. "Great, now they are gonna go telling everyone, ya know..."

While Naruto tried to laugh it off, Sasuke just looked away. He seemed bothered by the attention, so Naruto thought. "You...don't have to force yourself." While the blonde was trying to think of a good reason to the public humiliation, he was caught off guard by Sasuke's statement.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You don't have to force yourself to try to be nice to me. I won't do anything to you."

Again, Naruto looked confused. "What the hell are ya talking about?" It was only when Sasuke pulled his arm away from Naruto's hold, did the clueless one even notice that he was still holding it in the first place. Remaining silent, Sasuke then moved to pick up his lunch box from the bench in order to leave. "Hey! Oy! Sasuke! What are you talking about? Why are you so mad?!" Grabbing the arm again, Naruto's grip was much stronger than it was three years ago when Sasuke tried to walk away then. With their mannerisms and actions, it was as if the fight they had back then was just continuing right where it left off. However, while Naruto seemed to have remained the same, Sasuke, on the other hand, began to act extremely different.

Unlike last time, Sasuke didn't yank away at all and his body began to noticeably tremble. His one harsh, nearly screaming, voice was soft spoken the previously sharp and defiant black eyes even softer as they looked away. What was going on? Naruto suddenly lost all urge to fight and quickly calmed himself down. Even the volume to his voice lowered to nearly a whisper. The grip on the forearm relaxed, but it didn't let go. "Hey...are you okay?" Scoffing, Sasuke only shrugged.

"Look, I know what everyone is saying about me, alright? I knew that before I even got here, so you don't have to force yourself to be nice to me. No one else is going to talk to me..."

"Well, what's that got to do with me?" Grinning, Naruto shook the arm playfully as if he were trying to wake Sasuke up. "I don't care what people say, you know that. I'm sure as hell not forcing myself either. I mean...we're best friends, right? Though...you were a bit of an asshole and never wrote back..."

"You were the asshole who sent me all those stupid letters calling me a jerk and you that never wanted to see me again..." At least this confirmed that Sasuke did, in fact, actually receive them.

"Hey, I sent nice ones too! I was mad for a while, but...I mean...I didn't want you to leave in the first place, ya know. I'm glad you're back..." All of these gushy emotions were extremely embarrassing, but at least Sasuke didn't seem mad anymore.

"You can...let go of my arm now."

"OH! Right!" Finally letting go, Naruto moved the hand instead to the back of his head in order to scratch at the short blonde hair there. There was a nervous laughed that was released because now he really wasn't sure what do. Oh, right. They were supposed to be going to the vending machine that was around the corner of the building where the gym was. Back there was also a fenced track and field yard, along with a pool. The vending machine was near the steel double doors that led inside. This was a popular hangout so it wasn't really a surprise when Naruto saw most of his friends there. Sasuke seemed startled, not expecting to turn the corner to see so many people. While Naruto kept walking forward, Sasuke hesitantly hung back. "Hey, Sakura. Hinata."

"Hey yourself, Naruto...and...Sasuke?" Sakura looked over Naruto's shoulder, seeing Sasuke was keeping his distance. Turning, Naruto rolled his eyes and waved him over.

"Don't mind him. He's being weird. Hey! I'm not paying for your drink, so get over here!"

Tightening his fists, Sasuke forced himself to oblige. After all, he was thirsty and Naruto was a cheap bastard. Despite the years apart, that didn't seem to change at all. Naruto also noticed that Sasuke continued to have his general distain for people, even those who considered themselves his friends. Walking over, he gave a light smile and nod to Sakura as he wiggled between to get to the vending machine. "Hey...Sasuke..." Sakura gave her best flirtatious greeting, making sure to soften her gaze and give a flip to her short, bob cut hair that shaped her heart-like face.

"Hey." Sasuke toned remained cold, at best as he dropped a few coins into the slot. He then gave a solid punch to the coffee button and leaned over to pick up his prize after the can dropped.

"Hello, Sasuke. It's good to see you again." At least Hinata was more convincing in her actual greeting. She had always been a polite girl.

"Hello, Hinata. You look well."

"I...I do? Well ...thank you..." Despite her blushing face, Sasuke didn't sense any other intentions from her.

"Uck, you drink coffee at school? You're such an old man." Grumbling, Naruto picked a more childish fruit-flavored milk, complete with box and straw. Sasuke shrugged while sipped from the freshly cracked-open can as his eyes wandered around to check out the surroundings. There were some students running the track while a group of half-dressed girls were busy stretching from exercises. Even the pool was in use for some sort of water polo.

"We should get back to class..." Turning to Naruto, Sasuke eyed the blonde sipping the milk as he checked his phone.

"Yeah, I guess so. Ah, that's right. Sasuke, give me your number. You have a phone, right?"

"Ah, give it to me too! And your e-mail!" Sakura had pulled out her cell phone as well, waiting for the information.

"...I don't have one yet, sorry." The look of disappointment fell over both Naruto's and Sakura's faces.


End file.
